Monday, September 1, 2008

Bangalore: Rain fury continued in Bangalore on Sunday as it poured misery on a large number of residents with water entering their houses and flooding roads, resulting in slow movement of vehicular traffic.

Residents of RMV 2nd Stage and Dollar’s Colony spent most part of the day draining rainwater out of their houses.Problem

Padma Srinivas of 1st Cross, RMV 2nd Stage, said: “We face the problem year after year. The stormwater drain is small and cannot take the load. Officials of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) say they are powerless.”

“There is a four-month-old baby in our house. We are worried about spread of water-borne diseases,” she added.

Mala Bhat, another resident of RMV 2nd Stage, said: “We got flood gates installed to prevent this. However, we were not able to lock it on time, and rainwater gushed in.”

Ms. Bhat said BBMP officials recently came to inspect stormwater drains here and promised to increase their height.

Ajai Kumar Singh, Director General of Police (Corps of Detectives), who lives in Dollar’s Colony, too faced a similar problem. The drain in front of his house overflowed and water entered his house.

Krishnappa, who lives in a hut nearby, was standing on an elevated area in front of a flooded street. He said that rainwater had entered several huts.

Many houses in railway quarters in Yeshwantpur were affected. Balraj D., a technician, said that the drains overflowed, and rainwater entered their houses. “We have complained about the incident. Yet no higher official has visited us,” he said.

Surya Prakash, who was travelling from Mulbagal to Bangalore, had to drive through roads “which had turned into virtual rivers” near Doddabanaswadi. Vehicles were moving in a slow pace and it increased journey by several hours, he added.

A traffic constable on duty at Mekhri Circle said that the movement of vehicles was affected for more than two hours. “The underpass was blocked and vehicles tried to take a deviation by taking C.V. Raman Avenue. We had a tough time managing traffic,” he added.

The Sanjaynagar Main Road caved in and the wheels of a Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus got stuck in it, while the wall of the Parachute Regiment building in R.T. Nagar collapsed, killing a cow and damaging a car.Rainfall for August

Rainfall for August in the city doubled this year in comparison with the average rainfall of previous years. While Bangalore received 309.8 mm rainfall this August, the average rain for the month is 147 mm.

The city recorded 20.4 mm rainfall on Sunday, according to the Meteorological Department sources.